2007 Champion AJ Winstead celebrates with his crew.
Morris Returns, Wins Mason-Dixon Meltdown, Winstead Wins Points Championship
This year it was the South that won. Billy Morris, after a long absence, made a triumphant return to the Rolling Thunder Modifieds beating out 23 other teams for victory honors at a chilly Concord Motorsport Park.
Prior to the actual race PASS called for three 10-lap qualifying races to determine the feature lineup. Of those races #22 of Rodney Brooks, #11 of Irvin Bell and #3ct of Shane Tominski won their respectable heats which allowed them to start 1st, 2nd, and 3rd for the main feature.
The black and yellow #22 of Rodney Brooks led the 25-car field to the green flag and quickly became the car to beat as he was able to pull away from the field by several car lengths early. Within a handful of laps Brooks had developed close to a half a lap lead when he became embattled with slower cars, Brooks was able to clear lapped traffic however others weren’t so lucky as a collection of cars becamed entangled with lapped traffic coming out of turn 3, brining out the first caution.
After the green flag came back out, Brooks again managed to clear ahead of the rest of the pack, leaving the rest of the top 6 battling amongst themselves. #44 of Kurt Vigeant, a mod driver from Thompson Speedway in Connecticut was driving toe to to with points leader AJ Winstead, Langley Speedway’s Rookie of the Year Joe Scarbrough, and eventual winner Billy Morris riding behind them.
Two more cautions occurred which began to hurt Brooks as his multi-car leads were dissolved. Eventually Winstead managed to hang with Brooks after one restart and managed a bump-and-run off of turn three and was able to make the pass for the lead, along with Vigeant, Scarbrough, and Morris moving Brooks back to 5th position. After the pass, Winstead found that he was unable to get a lead as Morris, passing Scarbrough and Vigeant as they were battling for position was able to stay with Winstead, ultimately making a pass for the lead. Once Morris passed Winstead he was able to stay there and took the checkers a few laps later.
Race winner Billy Morris celebrating with the #55 mod in Victory Lane.
Winstead managed to hold onto 2nd place but the real nail biter was for 3rd as Vigeant and Scarbrough came off of turn 3 side-by-side and came across the line with Vigeant leading by inches and with Scarbrough running with his right tires up in
the air.
With his 2nd place finish, AJ Winstead clinched his first RTM Series Championship and performed a victory burnout after the race in celebration. In the 2007 season, AJ had an impressive record of 7 wins, 10 top-5’s, and one pole. AJ earlier this year clinched the Orange County Speedway Track Championship Presented by Racing Electronics.
The RTM Staff would like to thank all of the teams and drivers who came out and participated in the tour for the 2007 season. The whole tour went through a lot but the season ended on a high note and hopefully that momentum will carry on through the off-season and into next season. Keep posted on www.rollingthundermodifieds.com for all of the news and information on the series as we begin to plan for the 2008 season.
Thank you again, congratulations to Billy Morris for the win and congratulations to AJ Winstead for his championship.
OFFICIAL RESULTS
1. #55 Billy Morris
2. #99 AJ Winstead
3. #44 Kurt Vigeant
4. #30 Joe Scarbrough
5. #22 Rodney Brooks
6. #11 Irvin Bell
7. #91x Marlin Gunter
8. #8 Mike Hanbury
9. #21x Aubrey Thurston
10. #19 Dustin Bryson
11. #10 David Winslow
12. #43 Warren Lipford
13 #2 Doug Paasch
14. #3 David Kendall
15. #04 Larry Penny
16. #38 Michael Johnson
17. #6me Troy Morse
18. #3ct Shane Tominski
19. #39 Toby Davis
20. #9 Tony Ingram
21. #91 Dean Slappey
22. #69 Rusty Wood
23. #80 Scott Smith
24. #6 Buster Horne Jr.
25. #34 Ted Montague
26. #27 Andy Kemp
Withdrew - Tim Maxey
Withdrew - Robert Conner
Post Race Inspection Announcement
Protests were made regarding the type of front shocks which were used on the #55 car of Billy Morris. Here is the rule in the 2007 rule book for the Rolling Thunder Modifieds regarding shocks. Rule #7 under "frames and shocks" reads as follows.
"Any type of shock is allowed with the exception of adjustable-valved externally-charged gas shocks"
Upon a complete inspection and review of the shocks in question, it was determined that no release valves or adjustable allen wrench bolts were attached to the shocks themselves.
It was also determined that no alterations or fabrications had been made to the same.
There will be no disqualifications based on these findings.
RTM Site Gets New Look Championship Breakdown: USA Int’l Speedway
By Todd Knaperek
Thursday, November 15, 2007
As the RTM series continues to grow, the website has undertaken a giant change in appearance. Although it looks different,
the website will still continue to contain all of the necessary information regarding the series and the events it races as the
series enters the offseason and plans for '08. Hopefully this new design will be much more webmaster-friendly and will be
able to be managed much easier than the previous design.
